The Aston Martin Valkyrie has been undergoing a rigorous testing regimen, but the development work has almost solely been done with advanced computer simulators, even though finalized prototypes have been built and shown at auto shows—we even got to try out the simulators for ourselves. But at the British Grand Prix race at the Silverstone circuit in England this past weekend, the Valkyrie made its public dynamic debut ahead of the Formula 1 race, marking the first time it had been driven publicly.

The Valkyrie was piloted by Chris Goodwin, Aston Martin's head test driver. He called the day "exceptionally special," adding that while there is still a lot of development work yet to be done, "We can now begin to really push the physical testing process and realize the capabilities of what we have developed over the past months." He only completed one lap and wasn't close to being in full attack mode, but it was impressive to watch nonetheless. Aston Martin released a video, which we have embedded above, but sadly, it is heavily edited, and the sounds from the screaming V-12 and its accompanying hybrid system are partly obscured by some intense music. Aston CEO Andy Pamler tweeted a video of it driving past, though, which you can see below.

Aston Martin has been the title sponsor of the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team since the 2018 season. The Valkyrie is being developed in close partnership with Red Bull Racing and its Advanced Technologies division, with Red Bull's CTO Adrian Newey heavily assisting in the design. Newey said that it was an "emotional day" to see the Valkyrie running in person five years after he originally sat down to start design work on the car.

The Valkyrie at Silverstone was finished in a trippy blue-and-red Red Bull–themed livery that matched the testing livery of Red Bull's current RB15 Formula 1 car. Aston doesn't say whether racing liveries like this one will be available to customers, but we imagine that the 150 people who have plopped down more than $3 million will be able to order their Valkyrie in whatever color scheme they want.

Aston Martin

This won't be the last time you'll see the Valkyrie on a track, either. We're sure that some Valkyrie owners will be taking their extreme hypercars to the track, especially because there will be a track-only AMR Pro version, but that's not what we're talking about. The Valkyrie has recently been announced for the WEC's 2020–2021 season, which will be using new "hypercar" rules. That means we'll see the Valkyrie compete at Le Mans in 2021. And that is awesome.